Professor Elam

Wed Feb 14 2014

I have urged students to subscriber to the WSJ. Reading will improve their contextual understanding of what we study in class. 

But then I have also urged students to post comments on BB about their adopted company vis a vis the current chapter we are studying. Yesterday one student asked when that assignment ws due. Well, what are you waiting for?

Okay I just finished reading scanning this morning's WSJ, are there clues to what we can expect in the future, of course there are, one just has to get aligned with the social mood of the public. 

GOP caves on debt limit preferring to focus on ACA, it's a long way to November and the Republicans remain politically inept, we shall see

Traders are linking the NYSE to the NASD with laser beams on the pretext that billions of a second can spell the difference in profit and loss Well for sure this bunch is not following the Oracle of Omaha (who would that be) I can only imagine the potential for mayhem in the next market melt down when billions of trades are moving at laser speed, 1987 was bad enough

Some hot housing markets are cooling

FArm income to plunge 27%, hmm do you suppose that will affect John Deere 

Japan is sick of being treated as the good loser of WW II as China notes the Nanjing Massacre during WW II  the point here is that social mood continues to ramp up on both sides as they quarrel over the East China Sea and a few rocks that pass for islands, meanwhile the US appoints two rookies as our Ambassadors to those countries, quick now students, who are those ambassadors

FRench Socialist Hollande goes Supply Side, will he mention that it Barack

Airline pilots get minimum wage, Air Travel is the New Greyhound

Contrarian Play, Private Investor Backs Paula Deen who draws SRO crowds

Auto inventories at 59 days are the highest since the peak of 68 in 2009, we will discuss this ratio in class

Dutch map gizmo maker Tom Tom losing to Apple and Google, Rock beats paper every time

Dows climbs 192 points as Yellen promises well whatever she is promising, I seriously doubt she knows

A hotel in NY sells for $1.2 M a room, a record

Whole Foods priced at $972 per sF drops 11% after 9% increase in earnings, why?  Answer, social mood changed on Whole Foods

Suit against Corzine moves ahead, is the team reporting on this in Ethics paying attention?

Now that Puerto Rico has been downgraded to junk, it is testing the market for its bonds, would you be a buyer, what can you learn about the bond market reading this article, this is exactly what I am talking about, reading for context

OIl prices correlate with stock prices, did you know that, what does positive correlation mean/  Is it an accident that stocks hit new highs and oil hit $100, why are they correlated?

RAX drops 19.1% in one day, our TAMUSA team tagged a $80 stock price for RAX last year, it stayed there for three days, today it is $32.65, why, answer, social mood anticipated the change in the market

ON page C10 REITS are buying other REITs which invest in govt mortgages, sTock price to book value is not 89% for such shares, what does that mean, what does it imply, why have REITs fallen since tapering began, are they a buy now, such REITs make money on the difference between yield on bonds and teh cost of their debt financing, they also leverage to amplify their profits, what does that mean, recall my JCP example in class last week. 

Page C 16 RAX is under AMZN's cloud, shares are 55 times forward earnings, what does that mean

I can answer all of these questions but no one at UT Austin taught me how, I learned the answers on my own reading and studying the WSJ and the other links I have for you on my blog. 

To date not one new student has made a blog post this semester. a few have started to ask questions, 

What are you waiting for, if you want to swim competitively, get in the water as Mike Phelps swim coach observed, the blog is an alternate college degree waiting for you to get aboard….